a number of incidents of people being scammed from fake prizes and sweepstakes have been reported in the santa cruz area. victims have been contacted by an unknown individual and told that they won 500-thousand dollars and a new car, and all they had to do was wire 199 dollars to an address in jamaica or peru. the santa cruz district attorney’s office has issued a warning to beware of any prize or sweepstakes offer that come to resident’s homes. all telemarketing calls should be treated as suspect, and residents should not wire money to strangers. anyone who has been scammed by a bogus offer is asked to contact th district attorney’s consumer affairs division at 831-454-2050.
